Gomen. Gomen. My most sincere apologies for the lateness of this update. I promised an update within 3 weeks and it's been...2 months! Wow I suck! I've been really, really busy with school work. Add on to that, I'm working nearly every weeknight.

And I will NOT be quitting this story. I've got too much planned out for it anyway.

And I've been waiting on the reviews. If readers don't review, I don't know whether or not they like it, and thusly have doubts about writing. Just remember, every time you don't review, Kurogenshu kills a puppy (he's messed up like that).

Johnny Blaze may seem a bit out of character.

Sorry if the flashback seems too long.

Disclaimer: Why even bother? You know I don't. I know I don't. The true owners know I don't.

"Blarg"- regular talking

Knock Knock- Thoughts/Flashback

"You foolish fools!" Demon speech

(A cookie to those who figure out where I got these lines from! And you've got to know who said them.)

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Evil alone is terrifying enough. Evil combined is just insane.

Chapter 4: The Alliance

Fear.

Only two times in his life had he ever felt it. And both of those times he barely escaped death by only the grace of fate.

The first time was when he had defected from the Akatsuki and the leader himself had chased after him. He was quickly overpowered and outclassed by the most powerful missing nin to date. He escaped thanks only to his Doro Terepo-to no Jutsu (Mud Teleport).

The second time was when he had finally killed his ex-sensei, the Sandaime Hokage. The old bastard had somehow learned the Yondaime's sealing technique and nearly sealed his pupil's soul into his body. He had come face to face with the Shinigami, and lived only because the old man wasn't strong enough, and only sealed away his arms.

But now, Orochimaru was truly afraid for the third time.

He had watched in sick fascination as his single Chunin and two Jounin were, for a better word, devoured by the monstrous skeleton, Kurogenshu.

Personally, Orochimaru held the Dark Sovereign in high respects, and in great envy.

He had been fascinated at the thought of being able to kill anyone with just a single scratch from a weapon.

Orochimaru had also longed for immortality for as long as he could remember. He had spent thousands of hours and hundreds of test subjects in experiments of body switching. But he always knew that no matter which body he stole, there would always be one shinobi strong enough to kill him.

Now the great snake Sanin faced death, not from a ninja, but from someone who had been sealed away for a thousand years.

As Kurogenshu stood near the remains of the second Jounin, flexing his muscles and cracking his joints, a hundred thoughts raced through Orochimaru's head.

Attack now while he's distracted! No! You saw what he did to those other three. You might end up like them! If I don't do something, I really am going to die! This can't be happening! I only wanted to seize the Ippuku no Senmanhitodam (Scroll of 10 million Disembodied Souls). I never meant to revive him!

Orochimaru took a step back. This proved to be a mistake as it attracted the attention of Kurogenshu.

"Ah yes, how rude of me. I forgot to greet the other two of my welcoming back party. My name is Kurogenshu, the Dark Sovereign. But you may call me your executioner," he said with a wicked grin.

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"So here's the bounty of 35,000 ryos, as promised," said an elderly man, handing a wad of cash to the recipient.

"A pleasure, as always," replied the Takigakure missing nin Kakuzu. He and his partner Hidan had just procured a rather nice bounty on rogue nin while on a reconnaissance mission for Akatsuki.

As he exited from the secret exchange place, he saw that Hidan was sitting under a tree, gazing in the other direction with a far-away look on his face. Kakuzu had expected to find his zealous teammate lying down and doing that weird ass ritual he was always doing.

"What's up?" Kakuzu asked.

Hidan didn't respond for a few moments. "There is a storm approaching" he finally said.

Kakuzu looked in the same direction, seeing not a cloud in the sky

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked, his annoyance growing.

"Exactly." replied the silver haired missing nin ominously.

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It had been three years. Three long years of travel. Three years since he left his old life behind. Three years since he had regained his soul. Three years since he had saved the world. And three years since he had left her.

Roxanne Simpson. The love of his life.

He left her behind in order to put an end to Mephistopheles and his sick ways.

He left her behind to protect her from the evils he would face. He had learned that those who wished to hurt him would first go for her. And he couldn't bear putting her in harms way again.

Johnny Blaze had discovered that when Blackheart passed through the barrier dividing Hell from Earth, he had weakened it all around the planet, and now weak demons could enter the mortal plain. Johnny had taken it upon himself to travel around the world, destroying evil both in the form of humans and low class demons that made their way through.

For the past year he had felt a demonic aura that was usually low and seemed to be kept in check. Only a few times it felt like the energy was about to grow to a monstrous size, but it then receded. But a week ago, he felt the aura grow huge and threaten to release even more of its power.

If he had to guess, the demon was probably using only a ninth of its power. And a ninth was more than enough to worry him.

Johnny Blaze's chopper roared down the dirt road he was currently traveling. The wind whipped through his brown hair, making it look cool and wavy. He wasn't wearing a proper safety helmet like he should have.

But Johnny didn't care about that. Right now he had bigger things to worry about. Even though the temperature wasn't supposed to get below 70 degrees, he could feel the surrounding air growing hotter with each passing minute.

And that meant he was getting close to his target.

To his immense pleasure, Johnny saw that the sun had finally set. With a grin adorning his face, Johnny Blaze gave into the power struggling to be set free, and yet again became the Ghost Rider.

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It had been a week since his fight with Sasuke and Naruto was currently sitting at his favorite place in the world, Ichiraku's Ramen stand. The owner and his daughter, Ayame, were surprised and worried about their best customer because a) the blond was only picking at his Ramen instead of wolfing it down and b) he had only one bowl in front of him instead of the usual ten.

"Naruto-kun, are you feeling okay?" Ayame asked with a look of concern on her face.

Naruto looked up and Ayame noticed that his ocean blue eyes didn't have that certain sparkle they usually had. "Yes Ayame-chan, I'm feeling all right. I'm still just a little tired," replied the blond Jinchuuriki.

"Well you did a wonderful thing bringing back the Uchiha, kid, so the meal's on the house," said Tatsu (that's what I'm calling the owner).

Indeed the rest of Konaha seemed to agree, as a great festival was taking place in honor of Sasuke's return. Of coarse Naruto didn't go because every time there was any kind of festival with any kind of alcohol, Naruto always found himself on the wrong end of an angry mob.

And the Uchiha was still in the hospital under ANBU guard per Tsunade's orders.

"Domo aurigato, Tatsu-san," Naruto said, thanking the old man.

To tell the truth, Naruto wasn't worried about what anyone would do during the festival. He was worried because of the conversation he had shortly after waking up.

(Rewind!)

"Ahhh!"

Naruto awoke screaming in his hospital bed, drenched in sweat. It took him a few minutes to realize that neither he nor Konaha was burning. He looked around and saw that Sasuke was sleeping in the bed across the room, undisturbed by the blonde's outburst.

But that didn't mean that his shout didn't alert the ANBU guard standing outside his door.

"Is everything all right in here Naruto-san!?" the monkey masked guard yelled, kicking down the door with a bang in his hurry to get in.

Naruto sweat-dropped when he saw that the ANBU had drawn his katana in one hand and a few kunai were poised to throw in the other.

"Yeah, everything's cool dude. I just had a really bad dream," Naruto said raising his hands to show he wasn't armed.

"Oh...sorry." The ANBU then put away his weapons and walked back outside.

'How in the world did he get to be ANBU?' Naruto wondered to himself.

x 1 hour later x

Naruto and Sasuke had been moved to separate rooms so that Tsunade and Jiraiya could talk to him in private (and because somebody had kicked the door down and hadn't bothered to put it back up).

"You'll be pleased to know that everyone is alive. We managed to save Neji and Choji just in the nick of time." Tsunade said. "I'm also placing Sasuke on probation, and he will be under ANBU guard 24/7."

Then Jiraiya spoke in a serious tone. "Okay kid, I want you to tell us exactly what happened when you fought Sasuke at the Valley of the End. We need to see if the seal is getting weaker," Jiraiya said to his student.

Naruto didn't know what to tell them. He could very easily tell them about the group splitting up to take on the Sound Four one-on-one. He could also tell them how he used the Kyuubi's power to defeat Sasuke.

But how could he tell them he made a deal with the devil and sold his soul?

So Naruto told them everything up to the point where he killed Sasuke. He decided to leave out that and the part with Mephistopheles and just said that both he and Sasuke collapsed from Chakra exhaustion.

"And the next thing I remember was waking up here," Naruto finished.

Both Sannins seemed as if they believed the story.

"Wow kid. You're growing stronger everyday." Jiraiya said appraisingly. "But it seems as though the seal will hold. If that's all, I got to go meet with my informant about Akatsuki. I'll see you both when I get back." And with that the toad Sannin left the room.

It was silent for a few minutes before Tsunade spoke. "I truly believe you'll be the one to take my place gaki." She then gave him a hug and left, leaving Naruto by himself.

Naruto felt horrible, lying like that to his surrogate mother and grandfather. But he just couldn't bring himself to tell them. He would, when he was ready.

But he wished there was someone he could talk to. Anyone who knew anything about that stranger would be a great help.

Letting his exhaustion take over, Naruto closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a dark sewer. Recognizing this place to be the inner workings of his mind, Naruto followed the path to the bane of his existence.

After a few minutes of walking, Naruto once again found himself standing in front of the cage that held back the most destructive force the world had ever seen. The great Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Suddenly there was a deep chuckle from the cage. "So then boy, I guess you want answers," a voice said. Then a pair of great red eyes flashed open, pupils slited like a cat's.

"Yeah. I want to know everything you know about that guy and the deal I made," Naruto told the giant fox. "It sounded as if you knew him already."

"Yes that is true. Well, as you already know, the man's name is Mephistopheles. Basically, he is the King of Hell. You might know him by a different term, the Devil." Naruto gasped. "And we met about 500 years ago when I only had four tails. He came to me asking for help when one of his upper class demons escaped and was wreaking havoc on the humans. I was able to out class the demon and sent it back to the underworld, thusly having the devil owe me a favor. Which you wasted saving that traitorous friend of yours, I might add," Kyuubi said angrily.

Naruto sat there absorbing the information. But the other part of the question was left unanswered.

"And that contract I signed. He said that I would become a Rider? What does that mean?"

Kyuubi remained silent for a few minutes, gathering his thoughts.

"When a human dies, if their hearts are pure, they go to Nirvana. But if their soul is stained with sin, they are sent to Hell. Back in the old days, man lived without rules or regret. They did what they wanted, not caring who was hurt or what the consequences would be. This pleased Mephistopheles to no end as their souls would go to him. But then man developed a conscience, and with it regret. They changed their ways and more and more were sent to Nirvana to live their after life in peace."

"Okay that's great and everything, but what does it have to do with me?" Naruto interrupted, growing impatient.

"If you'll hold on a minute, flesh bag, I'm getting there. Anyway, Mephistopheles decided that if the souls wouldn't come to him willingly, he would force them too. Whenever someone wanted something, whether it be riches, revenge, or resurrection of a loved one, he would go to them and have them sign away their souls via contract. Now as soon as the soul was his, Mephistopheles would take away the thing they signed for, the only exception being the Uchiha. Now what he meant by you becoming a 'Rider' is that the ones who sold their souls would become the devil's bounty hunters, bringing in rouge demons or taking care of something Mephistopheles couldn't."

Kyuubi stared down at Naruto. The young boy was staring at the floor as if it were something interesting.

"So, you're telling me that now my soul belongs to Mephistopheles and I have to do his bidding?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

"As much as I hate to say it, you're royally screwed kid."

Then Naruto felt as if he was being sucked up, and found himself back in the hospital.

(Back to the present)

Naruto finished his meal and left for home. Everything that Kyuubi had told him played in his head like a broken record.

Had he known what the deal was back then, would he have still gone through with it?

Yes.

He still would have done it. He would go to hell and back to keep a promise. And now it seemed he would be doing that literally.

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Kurogenshu advanced on his prey like a lion would a scared lamb. He even bared his teeth for added effect.

Orochimaru didn't know what to do. Both he and Kabuto had tried nearly every jutsu they had, but nothing worked against this monstrosity.

Now Kabuto was so tired, he was nearly keeling over. Even Orochimaru was running low, but he still had enough Chakra left for a last ditch jutsu.

"Kabuto, I need you to distract while I gather enough energy to get us out of here. Just don't die," Orochimaru said to the medic.

"Of course, Orochimaru-sama. I won't let you down." Kabuto said, touched that his master would care enough to save him.

Fool, the snake man thought, I only have enough energy to get my self out. Such a shame. You were always there to help. Your sacrifice will be remembered.

As Orochimaru gathered Chakra, Kurogenshu realized what he was about to try.

"As much as I love lies and betrayal, I won't allow you to escape. Shouton: Kago Kosshi! (Death style: Cage of Bones)"

When he called out his attack, Kurogenshu unleashed his own Chakra and made the bones from the slain Sound ninja rise up and form a cage around Orochimaru and Kabuto.

Now Orochimaru knew he was royally screwed.

"Now then, time to see what your innards look like," Kurogenshu said, picking up a kunai.

Orochimaru had to try something. He couldn't die. It was his destiny to live forever.

"Wait! Don't kill me. I can be extremely beneficial to you!" the Sannin cried out.

Kurogenshu paused with a bemused look on his face. Then he started to laugh uproariously.

"Ha ha ha. How could a snake and a medic prove to be of any use to me? Snakes are vile creatures and I can heal myself."

This was why Orochimaru always kept an ace up his sleeve. "That's true, but I can help you find the Ippuku no Senmanhitodam!"

This caught Kurogenshu's attention. "You know where to find the scroll of my army?"

Orochimaru realized his mistake. "Not exactly. But the world has changed much in the past millennium. It would be easier to find it with our help."

Kurogenshu weighed his options. While he despised beggars and cowards, these two could find the scroll for him while he took care of other things.

"All right, you have convinced me. But I'm going to have to make sure the both of you don't run away," he said. Moving quickly, he put his two pointy fingers against Orochimaru's and Kabuto's foreheads. There was a burning sensation and when he removed his fingers, a tattoo with the kanji for fallen had appeared.

"Now no matter where you are, I will find you." Kurogenshu said with a satisfied smirk. He then removed the cage that held them. "Now while the two of you find where my scroll is, I'm going to get some more friends."

And with that, the Sovereign of Darkness exploded into a cloud of shadows, leaving the two alone.

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Whew!

Well, it took me a while, but here's the next chapter.

I hope I did a good job and left you guessing. What did Hidan mean? Will Johnny attack Naruto? When will Naruto transform and what will he look like? Who is Kurogenshu looking for? Why am I asking you these things? Review and I may/may not tell.